A Psychological Study Reveals Heavy Metal Fans Suffer From Low-Esteem

Music trends of a person can reveal what his personality is like. A psychologist at Westminster University, Viren Swami, recently decided to find out the unifying traits of metal fans. The conclusion he drew cites that heavy metal helps listeners boost their self-esteem and is often preferred by those who defy authority.

During the course of his research, Swami surveyed 219 women and 195 men. He asked them to listen to 10 heavy metal tracks and then they’ve to tell certain details about their personality. The results that were compiled from these surveys revealed that most metal fans tend to have a knack for being open to new experiences. In many cases, this is what leads them to listen to heavy metal.

Swami also stated that another major underlying characteristic that seems to occur in most metal fans is that they have an unusually higher need for being unique and generally do not have a lot of interest in religion.

However, the metal music does seem to offer some good points, conclude the researchers. According to them, “The catharsis afforded by heavy metal may, in turn, help boost self-worth and promote positive self-evaluations among those with otherwise low self-esteem. Rather than stereotyping fans as deviant, antisocial, or violent, it may be more fruitful to understand the psychological needs that contemporary heavy metal fill for some individuals.’

While this study makes interesting revelations about the heavy metal fans, other studies on the same subject have reached different conclusions in the past. A study at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, for instance, found out that heavy metal fans are similar to classical music fans in many ways and are highly creative.